There’s a peculiar thing that happens in companies, committees, and yes, even church choirs. You ask someone what they think, and they say, “It’s fine.” You press for feedback and get a vague nod, a polite chuckle, or the universal shutdown code: “Don’t worry, all okay.”

Then, of course, it all goes wrong - because nobody said what needed to be said. 

In nature, feedback is everywhere. If your body temperature rises, you sweat. If your blood sugar drops, your body screams for chocolate. These loops aren’t optional - they’re essential for survival.

And yet in many organisations, feedback is filtered, sanitised, or suppressed - as if truth were too radioactive to handle. In those environments, issues escalate unnoticed. Morale tanks. Customers vanish. And when the roof finally caves in, people act surprised.

Organisations obsessed with authority tend to become echo chambers. Subordinates don’t speak truth to power. Teams report what’s safe, not what’s real. Decision-makers fly blind.

When that happens, the system loses adaptive capacity. It drifts further from reality and eventually breaks down. Systems don’t die from noise; they die from silence. Genuine feedback isn’t comfortable. It challenges assumptions, exposes flaws, and often demands change. But the best leaders don’t avoid discomfort - they court it.

They build cultures where candour is welcomed, dissent is not career-ending, and the goal is not perfection but continuous learning.

One European tech firm introduced “Red Team Reviews” where junior staff were invited to actively criticise project plans. Result? Fewer blind spots. Better resilience. And a growing cadre of sharp, confident thinkers.

“Tell Me Something I Don’t Want to Hear” Days – It sounds dreadful. It’s glorious.

Don’t gather feedback and then do nothing with it. That’s worse than not asking at all.

Respond. Adjust. Show people that their input matters. That loop - listen, respond, evolve - is how ecosystems thrive, how species survive, and how organisations grow.

Smart Questions to think about:

Prompt 1: What signals are you ignoring in your current system because they’re too uncomfortable to confront?

Prompt 2: What would happen if you treated feedback as fuel for growth, not a judgement on your competence?